Shark Tubing Woman

Shark Tubing Woman, A Florida woman attacked by a shark said today that before she got into the water she told her friends she was uneasy about getting into the dark water “because you can’t see what’s down there.”

What was down there was a shark that ripped into her leg and then swatted her in the face with its fin.

Jessica Vaughn, 22, of Coral Springs, Fla., was attacked Sunday afternoon, but was well enough today to smile through a news conference and even joke about it.

She probably won’t get back into the ocean soon, however.

“It was really scary. Before we went out, I said I don’t like going into the water… when I can’t see what’s down there,” Vaughn said at the Broward Health Medical Center. She added, “I’ve always had feelings of something down under there because of the dark murky waters.”

Vaughn said, “I feel very lucky. I wouldn’t go back in that kind of water anymore.”

She was going tubing with friends at the home of Peter Hogge around 1:30 p.m. Sunday. She said she was swimming on her back to the tube when she was attacked by the shark.

“At first I felt like something punched my leg,” Vaughn said. “I thought a fish bit me. Then I saw my leg was cut open. I realized it wasn’t a fish.”

“I thought I would be fine once I get into the tube,” Vaughn said.

“It came up from behind her and bit her leg and then kind of smacked its tail and most of its body out of the water, hit her in the face actually, and took off,” Peter Hogge told ABC News affiliate WPLG.